Sunday, December 4, 2016

NASA releases images showing new Kaikoura quake land

United States space agency NASA has released satellite images showing land lifted from the sea near Kaikoura by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake last month which may "stay put".

An image from the European Space Agency's Sentinel Two satellite shows the newly exposed land ringing the Kaikoura Peninsula.

Kaikoura before the quake (Supplied/NASA)

Kaikoura after the quake (Supplied/NASA)

NASA provided a pre-quake image when the tides were about the same for comparison.

The quake on November 14 (NZ time) lifted the
seabed by 0.5 to 2m along a 20km stretch of the Kaikoura coast. In one
area, the uplift was 5.5m.

While
beaches raised by earthquakes occasionally sink back down gradually or
get pushed down by other earthquakes, the New Zealand coast is full of
historical examples of earthquake uplifted land staying put, NASA says.

"Most likely, the new land along the Kaikoura coast is there to stay."

In
1931, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake at Hawke's Bay raised land around the
city of Napier by between 1m to 2m and a magnitude 8.2 earthquake in
1855 raised much of Wellington by the same amount.